Enormous-Schwanstucker:whistleridge: I just got back from serving in the Peace Corps in northern Burkina Faso. There's a whole chunk of the country we weren't allowed to go to because of AQIM. We would even get periodic briefings from the embassy on how things were going (usually during crises, like when Mali went all to hell back in March).

From what it sounds like to me, AQIM isn't much more than a couple of hundred African rednecks with some rusted out old Hiluxes who are 'armed to the teeth' with the shiattiest AK's in history (and a few RPGs). If they had anything approaching a real education, they would know their discontent comes from being incredibly poor, even by the standards of one of the poorest places on Earth (think $6/month for food). Instead, they're hyped up on an imported brand of Islam and they're being used to further some malcontented Saudi college boy's political 'agenda'. And it's a tragedy, because the residents of the Sahel are some of the nicest people you will ever meet in your whole life.

Never EVER underestimate the reliability and longevity of a HiLux. Ever. Never.